Augusto Blanca Gil, a prominent Cuban singer-songwriter, painter, stage designer, and theater actor, was born on June 24, 1945, in Banes, Holguín. He is one of the most prominent exponents and considered one of the founders of the Cuban songwriting movement, which emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s, known as Nueva Trova.

As a child in Banes, Blanca took guitar lessons with Pedrito Rodríguez and performed several times as an amateur. As a teenager, she founded the quartet called Los nocturnos. In 1962, when she was seventeen, she moved to the province of Santiago de Cuba to study fine arts. At that time, she also joined the Orquesta Típica Juventud, thus beginning her artistic career. She continued working there until 1970, performing as a singer.

He completed his studies at the José Joaquín Tejada Provincial School of Fine Arts in 1967, specializing in drawing and painting. Also around that time, he began working with the Conjunto Dramático de Oriente as a set designer, directed by Adolfo Gutkin, who was also his acting teacher. There, he worked alongside Miguel Lucero, Ramiro Herrero, and other prominent artists. He received an award for his stage design for A Pound of Flesh, by the Argentine playwright Agustín Cuzzani.

He participated in the founding of Teatrova, directed by Gutkin, alongside actress María Eugenia García, in 1973. In 1984 he moved to Havana and continued his theatrical experience, together with the development of his troubadour compositional work.

On November 24, 1991, he premiered his successful adaptation of German writer Michael Ende’s play, Momo, alongside actress Corina Mestre, at the Hubert de Blanck Theatre. For his brilliant performance in the play, he won the Rita Montaner Grand Prix for best male performance and best music at the 1991 Festival de Escenas Líricas.

In 2003, he was awarded the Diploma of Artistic Merit by the Instituto Superior de Arte. Since that year, he has launched his solo project with intense dedication. In 2005, he won the Trova Award at Cubadisco for his production Luna trovera. That same year, the Pablo de la Torriente Brau Cultural Center awarded him the Pablo Award.

A year later, in Santa Clara, Augusto won the Original Music Award at the Small Format Children’s Theater Festival for the play Papobo, by playwright David García, staged by Arteatro. That same year, he was awarded the Caricato Award for his musicalization of this play. In 2007, he received an award for the music of The Wizard of Oz, staged by the Hubert de Blanck group. He also won an award at that year’s Habaneras Festival held in Havana.

Augusto Blanca has shared the stage with illustrious figures of Cuban music and Cuban actors, such as Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés, Noel Nicola, Vicente and Santiago Feliú, Sara González, Miriam Ramos, Lázaro García, Joan Manuel Serrat, Víctor Jara, Daniel Viglietti, Víctor Heredia, Angel and Isabel Parra, Nora Blanco, Maria Eugenia García, Corina Mestre, Jacqueline Arenal, Yanara Moreno and Renecito de la Cruz, among many others.

She has sung and recorded with leading international musicians such as Joan Manuel Serrat, Víctor Jara, Daniel Viglietti, Isabel and Angel Parra, and Noel Nicola. She has toured internationally with high-profile influences, including several countries in Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean.

He has performed his music at several international festivals, including the Political Song Festival in Berlin; the La Unitá Newspaper Festival in Italy; Carifesta in Barbados; the Luna de Otoño Festival in Mexico; the Barna Sand Festival in Barcelona, ​​Spain; and the Venezuelan Poetry Festival.

Augusto Blanca Gil’s artistic work has been closely linked to theater, composing music for the stage and founding the theatrical movement “Teatrova,” which united trova and theater. For twenty years, he served as musical director of the group Guaicán, accompanying the prominent troubadour Sara González.

Augusto Blanca Gil has a vast musical and recording career. His creative work is recognized as one of the fundamental works of the Cuban Nueva Trova Movement. In his work as a composer, many of his songs have been included in various Nueva Trova anthologies. His accolades include titles such as Regalo (Gift); Nube Blanca (White Cloud); No olvidares que una vez tú fuiste sol (Don’t Forget That Once You Were the Sun), popularized in the Río de la Plata by the Rosario-born singer Juan Carlos Baglietto.

Also included in this list are Poblinas, a series of songs he began composing in the early 1970s. Poblinas is a coined word, and has to do with the word poblano, meaning “villager.” These are authentic images of Cuban towns and their traditions, and possess great beauty, both textually and melodically. To create his works, he draws on encounter and dialogue. For years, he has exploited the performance potential of song through what he called Teatrova.

Among his various albums, we can mention his album, Este árbol que sembramos (This Tree We Sow), released in 1999. Several of Cuba’s most important troubadours participated in the album, and it also won the Special Jury Prize at one of the Cubadisco awards. This album was a tribute to the twenty-five years of Nueva Trova; it features pieces sung in duets with Silvio, Pablo, Vicente, and Noel Nicola.

Congratulations, Trovador! Produced by Sara González, this album is a new interpretation of the idea behind her album, “This Tree We Plant.” It features the same songs, performed by Liuba María Hevia and Manuel Argudín.

He has participated in other productions such as the album Pueden Jueves, EGREM editions, where together with Ariadna Amador, he sets to music the verses of the poet Waldo Leyva that are performed by, among others, Silvio Rodríguez, Isaac Delgado, Sara González, Miriam Ramos, Liuba María Hevia, Santiago Feliú, Rochy Ameneiro and the musical authors themselves.

In addition to being a composer, he is a general theater designer (set, costumes, and lighting) and an actor. His theater work (for children, young adults, and adults) has been linked to Teatrova, Teatro Estudio, Teatro Mío, Okantomi, Cabildo Teatral Santiago, Teatro Guiñol de Santiago de Cuba, Trébol, and other companies in more than 90 plays. As a playwright, he has written, among others, Romance Arlequín (Arlequin Romance), Corista (Corista), and Triada bajo la luna llena (Triad under the Full Moon).

Among the awards that Augusto Blanca Gil has collected throughout his artistic life, we can mention the Medal for the first ten years of the Nueva Trova, the Medal for National Culture, the Nicolás Guillén Plaque, and the José María Heredia Plaque, among others.

Discography: Gift (1978); Back (1982); A Handful of Seeds (1986); This Tree We Planted (1999); Luna Trovera (2005).